Making U.S. a police state will lower cost of health care, prevent national disaster

Many of the more liberal members of the Yale community are often the first to criticize the military and do so on groundless bases. What many members of the community often fail to see is that there are countless benefits to living in a police state.

The passing of the John Warner National Defence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007 brings that reality just one step closer. The act gives the United States president the power to send the military into the streets without having to waste his precious time, and the valuable time of people who need help, working through bureaucracy.

Bestowing that power on the president repealed the Posse Comitatus act of 1878 which forbade the military from patrolling the streets during peacetime. The Posse Comitatus act was passed at the behest of confederates who wanted the liberating union out of the South. It was a historical mistake which allowed the South to once again take away the rights that had been given to black citizens. Had the Union army stayed in the South, history would have taken a very different course.

Let’s first consider that in the event of a state emergency, the response by appropriate authorities is immediate if martial law is already in effect. There is no need to get a signature from the governor that is then reviewed by so-and-so overpaid bureaucrat. By the time a state emergency is declared under the current system and the national guard is called and given enough time to respond, most of the infrastructure damage and personal harm have already occurred. Imagine the number of lives that would have been saved had martial law been declared at the first sign of trouble in New Orleans during Katrina. The role of the National Guard in this instance is merely crowd control. A large police force in riot gear could do the job just as well, thus rendering the Guard useless.

Beyond speeding up response time to emergencies, a perpetual state of martial law would restore much-needed order to American society.

The United States has a prison population of over 2 million people. Furthermore, over 5 million are either on probation or parole. Our prison population is the biggest in the world, surpassing that of China by almost a million. All in all, we have 25 percent of the global inmate population.

The reason so many people are in prison? A large fraction of the American population has absolutely no concept of discipline and/or morality.

Even at Yale it is not unusual to enter a room and find a bed unmade and sometimes even litter on the floor. Studies have shown that such environments lead to criminality and other devious acts. When the city of New York cracked down on graffiti in the ’90s, the crime rate dropped immediately and in some places tremendously. Our schools are no longer teaching kids the skills they need. The military state will bring the crime rate down immediately if the prescribed steps are taken. A military regimen imposed on the prison population will also allow them to return to society better rehabilitated.

Given the current rates of diabetes and childhood obesity, it is a surprise to me that masses of people are not out on the streets clamoring for martial law. Some estimates claim that as many as three out of five Americans are currently overweight. Of those three, as many as two are estimated to be clinically obese. This represents a massive drain on the fit minority. If everyone were forced to undergo mandatory military training, the health care savings to the nation would be enormous. A military state under constant martial law would also be able to better defend itself from outside threats, be it from suicidal terrorists, domestic anarchists or Iran. The current state of affairs demands that drastic measures be taken. If martial law is not soon declared, the very future of our nation will be at stake.

José Abrego is a junior in Ezra Stiles College.

Comments

Anonymous

Get ready I've posted this to Digg.com asking for opinions. I bet you get some.

Anonymous

Wait. This is a joke, right?

Anonymous

What about the downsides of Facism?

Anonymous

I actually think that although highly improbable, the idea presented is very good. With the concentration of power that comes with declaration of martial law, it is possible for the state to devote large amounts of resource into resolving one or a few problems faced by the society. People should certainly look beyond the stigma of the words "military state" and "martial law"

Anonymous

Hilarious! Why not just skip to the next logical step and put everyone in jail (for their own good)?

I assume this is satire, but we are talking about Skull & Bonesville, so who knows?

Anonymous

Sadly, it is not a joke. I honestly don't know who lets this guy wright for the YDN. PATHETIC

Anonymous

Does the YDN try to print idiotic letters and editorials? There are way too many that don't derserve aren't worth the death of the trees needed to make the wasted paper.

Anonymous

NO one can force me to carry a gun If I don't want to, NOT EVEN in training. Mkeing the U.S. a police state will create a huge shift in the balance between the power of government and the freedom of citizens. F that S! I refuse to wear camoflauge( that style is sooo out) and I don't march for anyone. We ain't Israel, and we sure as hell ain't China or Cuba. Thank you and good night. Elvis has left the building!

Anonymous

I don't even know where to start. I'm still trying to pick my jaw up off the ground after coming accross this appalingly inane and intellectually bereft piece celebrating the death of posse comitatus and habeas corpus from an IVY LEAGUE publication! This guy got into Yale? And he has the gall to claim that Americans lack morality? Since when was slavery (and that is essentially what martial law is) ever moral?
I think Jose should be the first to withdraw from Ezra Stiles College and enroll in the new prison/military industrial complex as "Freedom Inmate #00000001". I'm sure that this glorious act of patriotism would inspire more Americans to rip up their copies of the Constitution (assuming Americans actually read the darn thing), don the olive-drab jumpsuits of the new order and get to goose-steppin'! (maybe they could do it to the tune of the newly reworked "Amerika Uber Alles!") When properly motivated I'm sure that in no time at all OUR prison population will outwork China's! Go America!

Anonymous

Outrageous! When in the history of mankind has a police state ever benefited the people? Nazi Germany, Amin's Uganda, North Korea, China, and countless others should serve as reminders and WARNINGS that a police state only kills people. Hitler himself is responsible for over 22 million deaths, while Mao Tse Tung killed over 60 million during his reign of terror. Lower health care at the cost of freedom? You sound quite insane if I may say so, and frankly, the police state has always been and forever will be a tool for the eugenicists to destroy humanity, for their own selfish gain. In trying times, times of war, times of Hell, these are the times in which the Constitution is most vital, and the rights therein should be preserved at all costs. Death to the New World Order.

Gabe Harris

This is a great idea. If people don't want to do it right now maybe we could stage a terrorist attack and then I'm sure they'd have to fall into line. I was reading through some old files and it looks like we could just do something similar to what the government planned in the 1960's when Paul Wolfowitz mentor Lyman Lemnitzer signed off on this great idea,

ya I Bet Wolfowitz probably remmebers that brilliant plan and heck some of his friends might already be helping us get to a the much desired police state that all rational folks are in favor of.

Whistlesucker

The idea is not to found a totalitarian state, but to create enough chaos and desperation and degradation of the USA so that the prospect of a "North American Union" becomes palatable. "Solve et Coagula" "E Pluribus Unum." E.g.: WWII = EU, one way, or the other. Crisis is opportunity - so one is being created. You're elites now, so get with the program already.